Let's hear it for Team Edward

Posted: Thursday, November 26, 2009

By CHESTER CARSON

I refuse to call it "The Twilight Saga: New Moon," I'm sorry. I don't recall the book's cover having the words, "The Twilight Saga," and therefore I refuse to acknowledge them when referring to the movie. I'm nitpicking a little, I know, and that's likely because I get a little irritable with chapter two of this - ahem - saga created by Stephenie Meyer.

Let me back up a bit, just to clue those of you in who are not hip to what "New Moon" is all about. It's like this: Meyer is a writer who had a dream one night about a girl, Bella (Kristen Stewart), and a love triangle between her, a werewolf and a vampire. They're all teenagers, and they all live in Forks, Wash. (real town, by the way, and their Chamber of Commerce gets a hell-of-a lot more visitors these days thanks to Ms. Meyer). Meyer decided to flesh out her dream onto paper, thinking she'd have a cool short story.

She wound up with four novels. "Twilight" was first, and that movie has already been added to teenie-bopper DVD collections everywhere. And mine. Don't judge me. "New Moon" is the second book, and now it is also the second movie. Coming full circle here, the reason "New Moon" bugs me just a bit is this: I'm on Team Edward.

"Twilight" focused much more on Edward Cullen (Robert Pattinson) and his family of civil vampires than Jacob Black (Taylor Lautner and a goofy wig) and his pack of vampire-hating werewolves. A love triangle wouldn't be a triangle, though, without that third ingredient. In chapter two, "New Moon," Edward, being the typical over-reacting vampire, decides the only way he can keep his true love (Bella) safe is by disappearing. "I promise," he says to her, "this is the last time you'll ever see me."

Yeah, great promise, Bud. Edward takes off; Bella becomes a depressed adrenaline junky. And by leaving, Edward opens the door for that third ingredient, Jacob Black, who also happens to be in love with her. Fans of Meyer's books typically fall into two camps: Team Edward or Team Jacob.

Team Jacob sucks.

Since "New Moon" focuses much more on Team Jacob, I found that the book irritated me and what do you know? So does the movie. Now that everybody is all caught up, I can also say that in spite of the annoying fact the story centers more on Jacob in "New Moon," the second movie doesn't detract from the young franchise. The movie's first day of ticket sales broke records, so the hype was certainly effective.

It doesn't really serve any purpose to dive into the story here - no offense to screenwriter Melissa Rosenberg - because the movie is fairly true to the book. And quite honestly, if you have not read the books I'm reasonably sure "New Moon" might drive you out of the auditorium before the final credits roll. There was one gentleman that proved my theory at the matinee I went to. He made it about 90 minutes before he made his exit up the walkway past my seat, laughing as he left. He departed in the middle of one of the cheesiest, most over the top, melodramatic moments in the movie and that, trust me, is saying something.

"New Moon," like "Twilight," both the book and the movie, is ridiculous. For crying out loud, it's a teen love story about vampires and werewolves! I know that, and I love it.